Happy New Year.

Go raibh suaimhneas 's sonas na Féile ort agus ar do mhuintir...

May the peace and happiness of the Season be with you and yours....
as we wrap up this year and see what the next one brings.

Wizards of Oil

Wall St. Journal... ◼ Spare a moment for a rogue trio of economic victims -- Hugo, Vladimir and Mahmoud. Their dreams of world domination and tight grips on power are eroding as the price of oil falls. If there is a silver lining to global recession . . .

h/t: Daniel in Venezuela
◼ 2008: the year Hugo Chavez lost his democratic fig leaf

IAF Surveillance video banned on YouTube

The effort to get Caroline appointed

◼ Upstate New York journalists have not been fooled as to who is behind the wheel. They know Ted Kennedy is once again in the driver’s seat:
◼ A Wrench in the Kennedy Machine

Yellowstone Earthquakes Under Supervolcano Caldera

A swarm of small earthquakes in Yellowstone National Park is the most intense measured there in years, leaving scientists puzzled.

The region is known for such swarms — 1,000 to 2,000 quakes occur annually in the park. Yellowstone's 10,000 geysers and hot springs, including the Old Faithful Geyser, may be the result of this geologic activity.

But the latest shaking is notable for the number of tiny temblors and their intensity, according to a statement yesterday from the University of Utah, where scientists monitor seismic activity in Yellowstone. (Yellowstone is located mostly in the northwest corner of Wyoming.)...

...Researchers have long predicted that the Yellowstone supervolcano will eventually erupt again, with devastating consequences for much of the United States. Half the country could be covered in ash up to 3 feet (1 meter) deep, one study predicts. But those same researchers say nothing suggests such an eruption is imminent. They point out, however, that Yellowstone seems to blow its top about every 600,000 years.

Meanwhile, the region's deep secrets are still being revealed.

Last year researchers reported on unusual slow movement below the surface that's tied to a newfound gradual sinking of the nearby Teton Range. And in 2006, scientists discovered that in the previous decade, the volcano had risen nearly 5 inches.

"Could it develop into a bigger fault or something related to hydrothermal activity?" wonders Robert Smith, a professor of geophysics at the University of Utah. "We don't know," he said this week.... ◼ http://www.livescience.com/ Yellowstone Earthquake Swarm Puzzles Scientists

US News & World Report ◼ The University of Utah Seismograph Stations reports that a notable swarm of earthquakes has been underway since December 26 beneath Yellowstone Lake in Yellowstone National Park, three to six miles south-southeast of Fishing Bridge, Wyoming. This energetic sequence of events was most intense on December 27, when the largest number of events of magnitude 3 and larger occurred....
◼ The earthquake center at the University of Utah
◼ March of 06 Uplift at Yellowstone Caldera (image source)
◼ News from the Yellowstone Caldera: Earthquakes
Part 1:

◼ Part 2
◼ Part 3
◼ Part 4
◼ part 5
◼ Part 6

recent coverage - Google links

Which worries you more - the possible eruption of a Supervolcano? or Global Warming?

What one man can do...

At a time when doom-sayers were hopping around saying everyone was going to starve, Norman was working. He moved to Mexico and lived among the people there until he figured out how to improve the output of the farmers. So that saved a million lives.

Then he packed up his family and moved to India, where in spite of a war with Pakistan, he managed to introduce new wheat strains that quadrupled their food output. So that saved another million.

You get it? But he wasn't done. He did the same thing with a new rice in China. He's doing the same thing in Afica -- as much of Africa as he's allowed to visit.

When he won the Nobel Prize in 1970, they said he had saved a billion people. That's BILLION! Carl Sagan BILLION with a B! And most of them were a different race from him.

Norman is the greatest human being, and you probably never heard of him.

------ Penn Jillette, of the comedy team Penn and Teller

Though barely known in the country of his birth, elsewhere in the world Norman Borlaug is widely considered to be among the leading Americans of our age ... Norman Borlaug has already saved more lives than any other person who ever lived.

Borlaug is responsible for the fact that throughout the postwar era, except in sub-Saharan Africa, global food production has expanded faster than the human population, averting the mass starvations that were widely predicted -- for example, in the 1967 best seller Famine -- 1975! The form of agriculture that Borlaug preaches may have prevented a billion deaths.

----- Gregg Easterbrook, The Atlantic Monthly

'The battle to feed all of humanity is over," biologist Paul Ehrlich famously wrote in his 1968 bestseller The Population Bomb ... But Borlaug and his team were already engaged in the kind of crash program that Ehrlich declared wouldn't work. Their dwarf wheat varieties resisted a wide spectrum of plant pests and diseases and produced two to three times more grain than the traditional varieties ... Borlaug, who unfortunately is far less well-known than doomsayer Ehrlich, is responsible for much of the progress humanity has made against hunger.

------ Ronald Bailey, Reason Magazine

Borlaug's work saved the Indian sub-continent from mass starvation. In his 90 years on this planet its human population has grown from about one billion to more than six billion. Without the hybrid wheats it was Borlaug's life's mission to develop and promote among the world's poorest farmers, few believe that this population could have been sustained.

------ Matthew Parris, The Times (UK)

As a result of [Borlaug's] work, a billion people now exist who otherwise would have starved to death, died of starvation-related diseases, or never have been born.

------ Gregory Pence and Joyce Hsu, Birmingham News

Borlaug is one of the great humanitarians of the 20th Century - and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 for a lifetime of work feeding a hungry world. The breeds of wheat he developed - with strong disease resistance, high yield potential and the ability to withstand poor growing conditions - led the "Green Revolution" that saved literally hundreds of millions of lives in developing nations that were prone to terrible famines.

------ James Glassman, Tech Central Station
h/t: Neo
Quotes source

Of environmental lobbyists [Borlaug] has stated, “some of the environmental lobbyists of the Western nations are the salt of the earth, but many of them are elitists. They’ve never experienced the physical sensation of hunger. They do their lobbying from comfortable office suites in Washington or Brussels. If they lived just one month amid the misery of the developing world, as I have for fifty years, they’d be crying out for tractors and fertilizer and irrigation canals and be outraged that fashionable elitists back home were trying to deny them these things.”

The opposite of what we are seeing around here.

love over money

◼ CIA Using Viagra to Bribe Afghan Warlords
...“Whatever it takes to make friends and influence people - whether it’s building a school or handing out Viagra,” said one agency operative with multiple tours in that war torn country.

Standard incentives - such as money, jewelry and cars - are too ostentatious, noted another operative to the Post.

“If you give an asset $1,000, he’ll go out and buy the shiniest junk he can find, and it will be apparent that he has suddenly come into a lot of money from someone,” said Jamie Smith, a veteran of CIA covert operations in Afghanistan. “Even if he doesn’t get killed, he becomes ineffective as an informant because everyone knows where he got it.”

The key, Smith said, is to find a way to meet the informant’s personal needs in a way that keeps him firmly on your side but leaves little or no visible trace. ... :) Maybe smiles aren't visible.

Do ya think this will top the 'if this erection lasts more than four hours, call a doctor' ad campaign?

◼ Little Blue Pills Among the Ways CIA Wins Friends in Afghanistan

And really

all he has to do is turn over his birth certificate. Why not do it? In the interests of the transparency he promised. The transparency and open and inclusive honest government he represented to his believers...

This continues to be baffling. Is it a game to him?

◼ ANOTHER DAY ....ANOTHER OBAMA BIRTH CERTIFICATE LAWSUIT

The largest threat to freedom, democracy, the market economy, and prosperity at the end of the 20th and at the beginning of the 21st century is no longer socialism. It is, instead, the ambitious, arrogant, unscrupulous ideology of environmentalism.
◼ ‘Santa’ Klaus Takes on Global Warming
◼ Top 10 dud predictions

Scrooge

◼ Scientists warn Christmas lights harm the planet And it's not even a joke.

◼ S.F. fliers may pay their way in carbon usage

The experimental program, scheduled to start this spring, would make SFO the first airport in the nation - possibly the world - to offer fliers the opportunity to purchase carbon offsets.

"We'd like people to stop and consider the impacts of flying," said Steve McDougal, executive vice president for 3Degrees, a San Francisco firm that sells renewable-energy and carbon-reduction investments and is teaming up with the airport and the city on the project. "Obviously, people need to fly sometimes. No one expects them to stop, but they should consider taking steps to reduce their impacts."

A tragedy and a comedy rolled into one... It takes the Catholic notion of confession to brave new heights. You are guilty, you are a sinner, you must atone. Atonement is achieved by tithing. Pay up. Assuage your guilt. Absolution is yours.
◼ Let's Call it What it IS...

And to go with that: The Christmas Trucker's Parade letting you know the Christmas spirit is alive and well...




h/t: eric

Walking in the Air...

That time of year again. Merry Christmas.

Buy the DVD ◼ Raymond Briggs' The Snowman (1982)



Celtic woman version:

The Op-Ed the New York Times Wouldn’t Run.

Manson photo source Ayres Photo source
An FBI informant's response to Bill Ayers' rewriting of history got the cold shoulder — but you can read it here.... The New York the Times allowed Ayers to publish obvious lies about his terrorist past and rejected a rebuttal by the former FBI informant who lived through the history Ayers tried to rewrite.... ◼ The Op-Ed the New York Times Wouldn’t Run. (pajamas media will)
...I must conclude by acknowledging that in one respect Bill is probably being absolutely truthful. When he says that “I never killed or injured anyone,” he is most likely being totally honest. Bill, like Charles Manson, never exposed himself to any kind of danger. He always gave orders and then left it to his then-girlfriend, Diane Oughton, and others to implement his plan. If you listen closely you can even hear the similarities in the arguments Manson and Billy use today to justify what they did: the 60s made me do it....

◼ New York Times Rejects FBI Informant's Op-Ed Responding to Bill Ayers -
The New York Times published a self-aggrandizing op-ed by former Weather Underground terrorist Bill Ayers, but rejected a reply by former FBI informant Larry Grathwohl; now you can read Grathwohl’s rejected submission, thanks to Bob Owens and Pajamas Media: The Op-Ed the New York Times Wouldn’t Run.

BTW, the comments threads in the linked pieced are as good or better than the post.

“They can hold all the sales they want at Bergdorf’s, but 40% off ridiculous is still ridiculous”.

...stores on Fifth Avenue are doing things they’ve never had to do before: hold SALES. In all the years we’ve come to New York for Christmas, we have never seen a SALE advertised on Fifth Avenue, the way you’d see at Target. SALE!

And the stores are empty. EMPTY!

At this time of year, you should not be able to muscle your way into Saks, let alone Macy’s or Bloomingdales or any of the big department stores. FAO Schwartz typically has an hours-long wait just to get into the store at this time of year. But, you can honestly hear crickets and spot tumbleweeds and cobwebs here and there inside all of these stores. No one is shopping. No one is buying anything. The stores are all bejeweled and extravagantly decorated, of course, but they seem like giant museums to things no one can afford than showplaces of commerce.

Mausoleums. That’s what they actually seem like. Mausoleums, not museums. It all has the vague and somewhat terrifying feeling of being in an ancient Egyptian or Chinese tomb, with giant animal-headed statues or terra cotta warriors wearing Versace or Armani, sealed up for eternity in marble enclosures, capturing the opulence of a dying age in place, to be undisturbed for some time. The mannequins hold silent vigil for all that WAS, and all that’s never to be again.

It’s creepy.

And as one of the guys at the gym said, “They can hold all the sales they want at Bergdorf’s, but 40% off ridiculous is still ridiculous”. ◼ 40% off ridiculous is still ridiculous

Shopping yesterday, I have to say it is a different story here. We don't have Macy's and Bergdorf's, so it's probably not a fair comparison, but the parking lots at Target, Costco, and the Mall were jam packed. No available parking. The stores are full. And people are shopping. Not just shopping. BUYING. Actually walking out with bags of stuff, sometimes carts filled to overflowing. More than I have ever seen. And people don't have that deadened look that sometimes comes in the last days before Christmas. They're happy and talking....

Move aside, Al.

A Maryland scientist has proposed a public patent that he claims could combat global warming. The proposed plan would require massive amounts of water to be sprayed into the air in an effort to bolster the earth’s existing air conditioning system.

(He) proposes to spray gigatons of sea-water into the air and in effect, build a “a colossal refrigeration system with a 100,000-fold performance multiplier.” He contends a number of positive effects would be in action at the same time to help stave off warming.

“The Earth has a giant air-conditioning problem,” he said. “I’m proposing to put a thermostat on the planet.”

First, the sprayed droplets would transform to water vapor, a change that absorbs thermal energy near ground level; then the rising vapor would condense into sunlight-reflecting clouds and cooling rain, releasing much of the stored energy into space in the form of infrared radiation.

Kenneth Caldeira, a climate scientist for the Carnegie Institution’s Department of Global Ecology at Stanford University whose computer simulation of Ace’s invention suggests it would significantly cool the planet. The simulated evaporation of about one-half inch of additional water everywhere in the world produced immediate planetary cooling effects that were projected to reach nearly 1 degree Fahrenheit within 20 or 30 years, Caldeira said.

◼ “relatively unknown Maryland scientist” wants to patent the swamp cooler to combat global warming

7 min Wacom demo

2:45 demo...

4:10...

Amending fascism - From Daniel in Venzuela

(Venezuela News And Views):
...before I go into a quick summary of yesterday events let me offer you a brisk Washington Post Editorial that says it all about the current situation of Venezuela and Chavez, with phrases like this one: The official results, showing the margin of Mr. Chávez's loss, have not been released. "sin pelos en la lengua", as we say in Venezuela.

What can I say about yesterday performance in the National Assembly? No surprise was expected since we knew that the servile National Assembly was going to approve the orders of Chavez to allow for his eternal "reelection" (read again the editorial above, I am not the only one doubting of the quality of Venezuelan elections). And yet surprises came...

...boxes of useless signatures were carried by a human chain to the floor of the assembly. As I observed the carriers I thought about the move I was subjected too recently and let me tell you that for boxes supposedly filled up with paper they were darn easy to be carried around. The chair refused to have the boxes opened for inspection by opposition assemblymen. Imagine that!

- one box was opened by a sympathetic and exalted carrier who ruffled the leaf for the cameras. The cameras detected many blank sheets in the ream of paper! I mean, they cannot even fake it in one box!!!! Amazing!... ◼ Read the rest...

◼ The 2008 Venezuelan results: 7 - Conclusions
◼ The Chavez permanent show: 170 hours of cadena
A little note of interest: Chavez this year has already spent 170 hours in cadenas. That is, Chavez has commandeered ALL TV, and ALL Radio stations of Venezuela to transmit simultaneously his speeches for 170 hours this year. Nobody else is allowed to do, and nobody can reply to his message on the state TV network, the largest one by far in the country (1).


And from Alek Boyd:
◼ HRW (Human Rights Watch) v Hugo Chavez et sycophants

Al Gore - Explained

I don't know who JP is, but THIS is an interesting observation:
JP says:
Many years ago, a pundit tried to explain the mystery known as ALGORE. The famed Baby-Boomer, unlike his peers, the Robert Reich’s, Bill and Hillary Clinton’s, or Lawrence Summers had no real academic training. His degree was in journalism and like a good son, ALGORE loyally inherited his father’s political place in the world of Tennesse politics. Yet, his heart nor his mind were really not in it. He always had a gift for absorbing large ideas -both scientific and political. He reminded me of several friends I’ve known over the years. ALGORE and people like him can abosrb and recite general facts about all kind of scientific trivia: phyics and relativity; chemistry and biology; weather and climate.

Yet, if you were to set them down and look at a set of Einstein’s field equations they would be stumped. Differential Calculus let alone Tensor Calculus would be way above thier understanding and interest. They never took anything higher than Fresman Algebra. But like Cliff Claven from Cheers, thier superficial understanding of things never stops them from pontificating.

ALGORE is one of those people. Tragicaly, he is allowed to live in a fantasy world of his own making. Both scientists and other academics look the other way, or in Hansen’s case, they enable him to live his fantasy life of climate expert. Just think of it: a man who never took a class any more difficult than 10th Grade Earth Science is an accepted peer in a field that usually requires 10 years of post graduate work to just get your foot in. He has gotten an Oscar and Nobel Prize for his efforts; he is feted in every major nation, and flies in a Gulfstream to give six figure speeches and seminars.

ALGORE’s real talents lie in science fiction. There is no doubt he loves science as a hobby; he has an imagination, and the moral calling fo the true evangelist. Who knows’s what kind of books he could have written if he turned away from politics as a young man.

The rest of the comments thread is pretty interesting, too.
◼ Gore: “Entire north polar ice cap will be gone in 5 years”

Forget Rick Warren

Science magazine reports that John Holdren, a professional environmental judgment day doomsayer, is going to become Barack Obama's top science adviser.

John Holdren is the ultimate example of the pseudointellectual impurities that have recently flooded universities and academies throughout the Western world....
◼ Crackpot John Holdren will become Obama's science adviser

Heh - Al Gore's Road Kill Show

h/t: wattsupwiththat.com/

More:
◼ wattsupwiththat More Hot Propaganda - this time from Greenpeace

Apparently nothing is off limits anymore. Now we can all honestly say that Greenpeace has abandoned any pretense of using science. It’s all about the message they believe. The message here appears to be a double fallacy packed into a slick CGI animation designed specifically to target children during the holiday season.....

◼ Little Green Footballs The Great Global Warming Swindle Debate

A giant breach in Earth's magnetic field

From The Reference Frame:
◼ A giant breach in Earth's magnetic field
Read: ◼ NASA/Themis

Dec. 16, 2008: NASA's five THEMIS spacecraft have discovered a breach in Earth's magnetic field ten times larger than anything previously thought to exist. Solar wind can flow in through the opening to "load up" the magnetosphere for powerful geomagnetic storms. But the breach itself is not the biggest surprise. Researchers are even more amazed at the strange and unexpected way it forms, overturning long-held ideas of space physics....

...The years ahead could be especially lively. Raeder explains: "We're entering Solar Cycle 24. For reasons not fully understood, CMEs in even-numbered solar cycles (like 24) tend to hit Earth with a leading edge that is magnetized north. Such a CME should open a breach and load the magnetosphere with plasma just before the storm gets underway. It's the perfect sequence for a really big event."

Sibeck agrees. "This could result in stronger geomagnetic storms than we have seen in many years."...

Watch: ◼ NASA video
Read: ◼ Earth’s Magnetic Field Has Massive Breach - scientists baffled

He notes: However, already in 2007, we mentioned a paper about a possible role of interstellar dust as a climate driver: this dust was proposed to realize the 22-year cycles. Something of this sort is probably happening. It is not exactly clear which of the effects related to the magnetic fields and magnetic storms and auroras etc. are going to be crucial for the temperature.

At any rate, I find it likely that a proper understanding of the flow of charged particles - not only cosmic rays - and their interactions with the magnetic fields is going to be important for a proper understanding of climate variability. And be sure that the periodic effects with the 22-year period are not the only ones that will exist and matter.

In closely related news, the Earth's ionosphere dropped to a new, unexpected low.

◼ Papers challenging geocentrism

It's not that power corrupts...but that it is magnetic to the corruptible.

"All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it is magnetic to the corruptible. Such people have a tendency to become drunk on violence, a condition to which they are quickly addicted."
Missionaria Protectiva, Text QIV (decto)
Dune
Frank Herbert
Quotes
and more quotes

WE DON'T KNOW?!? WE DON'T KNOW?!?!

◼ http://www.eyeblast.tv/public/checker.aspx?v=ydpr8zQukU

An odd silver lining

and an interesting perspective...The Depression — let’s call it what it is — leaves us, well, depressed. But there is very good news from around the world. Our enemies are collapsing under the strain of dropping oil and gas prices. What we had all hoped conservation and off-shore drilling would achieve, the global economic collapse is accomplishing: the defeat of OPEC, Iran, Chavez, Putin and the weakening of the financial underpinnings of Islamist terrorism. In each of these nations, the hold of the dictator is weakening as, one after the other, they face the consequences of dropping oil prices.... ◼ Dick Morris on THE IMPENDING COLLAPSE OF OUR ENEMIES

...Because of corruption and incompetence, Venezuelan oil production has dropped from over 3 million barrels per day when Chavez took over to about 1.7 million today. As long as oil prices were quadrupling, it didn’t matter, but when they crashed, a harsh wind of reality blew in the door. Chavez was losing popularity before the oil price dropped. He lost a constitutional referendum to give himself lifetime tenure and he just lost his municipal elections in the largest cities and states in the nation. After knocking out most of the major opposition candidates on phony charges of corruption, he managed to hang on to the governorships of the small, rural provinces, but he lost the cities — even the poor areas of the cities vote d against him.

Now, beset already by food shortages and galloping inflation, Venezuela has to make do with less subsidization and drastic cuts. Feeling cold times ahead, Chavez is desperately pressing ahead with a new attempt to abolish term limits in a vote set for the end of February, but, if he falls short — which we think he will — he could be out in a matter of months....

The Fortune Cookie Game.

There's an old game where you add the words 'in bed' to the fortune in your fortune cookie... and there was a time when much hilarity ensued as a result.

This new game isn't as funny - just add the words 'on tape' to the OPE's statement at his Press Conference today. Get used to it. It's gonna be a long four years.

“No inappropriate discussions” - "on tape."

No discussions with Blago - "on tape."

(*That we know of...)

◼ No wonder Rahm’s got lockjaw. He’s on 21 taped conversations!

Oh, but they're just talkin' and talkin' is not illegal, dontcha know?

◼ "If you read these transcripts closely, you’ll find that nobody did anything. People are just talking, and that’s not against the law."

Obama has conducted an internal investigation and cleared himself of any wrongdoing.

Another wrinkle: ◼ Pay to Play Superdelegate Style

...though he hadn't yet officially decided to take the post...

Look at the wording in here, the new "narrative" is emerging... Barack Obama had begun thinking about his Senate successor even before the presidential election, and dispatched Rahm Emanuel days after the vote to contact aides of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich to begin talking up Mr. Obama's preferred candidates, associates of Mr. Emanuel said this weekend.

Mr. Emanuel, a congressman from Chicago, had been approached about being Mr. Obama's White House chief of staff the week before the election, though he hadn't yet officially decided to take the post. Nonetheless, the issue of Mr. Obama's Senate replacement was sensitive enough that senior Obama aides wanted to keep the matter within the circle of Illinois political figures, according to people familiar with campaign deliberations at the time.

Wow. ...Mr. Emanuel, a congressman from Chicago, had been approached about being Mr. Obama's White House chief of staff the week before the election, though he hadn't yet officially decided to take the post...

Really? They've been going gangbusters, and now this.

◼ Emanuel, Blagojevich Aides Discussed Senate Seat

Yay!

I think I am a hatchling at Little Green Footballs.

MAN! It is hard to get in there!

Hot chocolate

We rarely see snow, but it's snowing here, and it is cold. Slushy, hail-y, and sometimes fluffy, and actually sticking in some places... haven't heard yet if there is snow on the beach... Time for hot chocolate. So what's the best recipe? I can just use milk and Hershey's Quik, but somehow that's not hitting the spot. Doesn't have that taste I remember. Is it 2% milk as opposed to whole milk? A little research is in order...

...1700 - By the 1700s, "Chocolate Houses" were all the rage, as popular as coffee houses. These places were precursors of our present day cafes and bars, and they were frequented by politicians, writers, and socialites.

From the middle of the seventeenth century onwards, chocolate also enjoyed great success in Great Britain, especially after the conquest of Jamaica, which gave the British direct access to cacao production. After chocolate was introduced in England, milk was added to the after dinner treat.

By the end of the 18th century, London's chocolate houses began to disappear, many of the more fashionable ones becoming smart gentlemen's clubs.... ◼ Rediscover True Hot Chocolate - History of Hot Chocolate
**********************

Decadent Hot Chocolate

Recipe from the Inn at Little Washington, Washington D.C. A delightful, gourmet hot chocolate. don't worry about the calories, just enjoy! This will not only impress your guests, but also yourself.

1 tea pot full of Hot Chocolate (see recipe below)
Tea cups
Whipped cream
Curls of white chocolate
Curls of milk chocolate

Prepare Hot Chocolate. Place a dollop of whipped cream in the bottom of each tea cup. Place a curl of white chocolate and a curl of milk chocolate in the cup over or beside the dollop of whipped cream.

Pour prepared Hot Chocolate over the top of the ingredients. The whipped cream will rise to the top and the chocolate curls will start melting. NOTE: Timing is important in making this hot chocolate, as you need to hand the person the cup right before you pour the hot chocolate into it.

Makes 4 (4 ounce) servings.

HOT CHOCOLATE
6 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
2 cups milk

Place the milk and chopped chocolate (can also add sugar to taste) in a saucepan over medium heat and whisk periodically until the mixture reaches the boiling point and is foamy. Remove from heat and if more foam is desired, use a wire whisk or hand held blender to whip the hot chocolate.

Not so easy if you don't have the ingredients on hand, but worth a try.

LOL

◼ http://blogs.indystar.com/varvelblog/

Why things are clamped down

Who knows what's on those tapes - or how long they've been going on...

BARACK Obama’s chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, was under pressure to resign last night after it was revealed he had been captured on wire taps discussing candidates for the US president-elect’s Illinios Senate seat.

Mr Emanuel’s presence at the heart of the scandal threatens to roil Mr Obama’s administration as a Chicago prosecutor builds his corruption case against Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, ◼ The Australian reports. - Obama aide heard on wire tap

THE bullish, foul-mouthed but effective Chicago arm-twister Rahm Emanuel has come under pressure to resign as Barack Obama's chief of staff after it was revealed he had been captured on court-approved wire taps discussing the names of candidates for Mr Obama's Senate seat.

Mr Emanuel's presence at the heart of the scandal threatens to roil the US president-elect's administration as a Chicago prosecutor builds his corruption case against Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich.

◼ h/t: Sweetness & Light Barack Obama chief Rahm Emanuel urged to resign

They never learn.

What got Nixon? What got Clinton? Lies.

Chicago Tribune - Rahm Emanuel talked with governor's office about who should fill Obama's Senate seat

One source confirmed that communications between Emanuel and the Blagojevich administration were captured on court-approved wiretaps.

Another source said that contact between the Obama camp and the governor’s administration regarding the Senate seat began the Saturday before the Nov. 4 election, when Emanuel made a call to the cell phone of Harris. The conversation took place around the same time press reports surfaced about Emanuel being approached about taking the high-level White House post should Obama win.

Emanuel delivered a list of candidates who would be “acceptable” to Obama, the source said. On the list were Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett, Illinois Veterans Affairs director Tammy Duckworth, state Comptroller Dan Hynes and U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky of Chicago, the source said. All are Democrats.

Sometime after the election, Emanuel called Harris back to add the name of Democratic Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan to the approved list, the source said....

...Though now working full-time on Obama's transition, Emanuel has yet to resign his congressional seat. Illinois law has a different process for filling vacant House seats than Senate seats. When Emanuel resigns, a special election will be held for his replacement.

One alleged scheme outlined in the charges against Blagojevich involves the special election for Emanuel's seat. The government affidavit said Blagojevich and others were recorded talking about an unnamed "president-elect adviser" concerned about the election for Emanuel's congressional seat who might help the governor land a new job at a non-profit organization....

h/t: Little Green Footballs
Rahm Emanuel Talked with Blagojevich About Obama's Senate Seat

And on and on and on it goes...

Check out

Fred's post on State Corruption Who's worst? Who's toughest?
the USA Today article - North Dakota tops analysis of corruption

What's the difference

between GIVING Blagojevich's wife a cushy appointment and GIVING Caroline Kennedy a Senate seat?

Payback time

There's no shortage of special interest groups who expect favors and accommodation from Obama. It's either going to be as Krauthammer says, "Don't Be Fooled By Obama's Centrist Appointments" OR there's going to be a VAST disillusionment on the part of the activist groups....

Add this one to the mix - it looks like the enviro activist groups are gearing up against Congressman Mike Thompson (D-Calif.) even though Thompson’s annual ratings on the Humane Scorecard have ranged from a very respectable 58 to 85 percent.

He's too much of a moderate, and doesn't toe the line every inch of the way like the guy they're pushing who has a HUNDRED PERCENT 100% rating.

Here's the meme - and you will see it repeated: even though Thompson also has a solid record on protecting the environment ...he’s never been a leader, or a go-to person for the environmental community on the big fights of the day.

And though he did chair the Natural Resources and Wildlife Committee in the state Senate, he has not served in Congress on the Natural Resources Committee and has essentially seen wildlife issues only through the lens of his leadership at the Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus, rising to the defense of inhumane and unsporting hunting practices. The nation needs someone with a broader background, and Obama should understand this as well as anyone.

You see how it is done. So artfully. Turn him into a bad guy. He hunts. He dares to differ with us.

Colin Powell says don't watch porn, no, make that don't read blogs

Well, ok, no. That's not exactly what he said. he said don't read the Huffington Post, Media Matters or IndyBay... Nope. He said don't listen to talk radio.

It's very clear that he has no idea what he is saying. Talk radio is opinion, discussion, debate. It is not any political party's platform. It's not something to be squashed.

At San Francisco's KGO, there are more 'liberal' opinions than conservative, and it is extremely successful, and has been for YEARS. It's discussion of the issues of the day. On the national level, the "right-wingers" are more successful, which is what attracts comments like Powell's, but it too is discussion of the issues of the day. It's information, facts and theories, allowing for wildly divergent opinions... Medved has "conspiracy day" and "disagreement day," Boortz puts people who disagree at the top of the line. Points are aired, and argued, information comes from many sources - the host, the guest, callers, experts, and news coverage, which, like the blogs is a large part of the opening discussion.

The same can be said of Huffington Post, and other "leftist" outlets. Presumably there are other KGO's across the nation. Focusing on JUST the upper tier of conservative talk radio does a disservice to all the others, and any attempts to squash the few will only hurt all. Limiting choices, limiting discussion, and hogtying the free market communication, ala the "Fairness Doctrine," it should be realized, could backfire on those who seek its passage. Theirs has not always been, will not always be the PC, 'popular' view. It could be argued that it is not even now.

Either way, discouraging free speech and open and honest discussion - the real losers will be the people.

Getting at the truth.

◼ Rahm Emanuel Reportedly Spoke with Blagojevich About Senate Seat - and they may be taoed conversations
Yet
Obama says no one from his staff had any conversations...

This follows multiple interviews where his staffers say that he himself was in contact about the Senate seat - BEFORE they knew about any of this. The direct record contradicts 'the Office of the President Elect.'
h/t: HillBuzz

◼ Blagojevich fundraiser held by Jackson allies Saturday

"Who sent you?"

"In Chicago politics a key question has always been, who "sent" you?"

◼ Well...

"Suck it up" for two years.

◼ FBI: Illinois Governor Sought To "Sell" Obama's Senate Seat Wanted President-Elect to "Put Something Together . . . Something Big"
The FBI affidavit said Blagojevich had been told by an adviser "the president-elect can get Rod Blagojevich's wife on paid corporate boards in exchange for naming the president-elect's pick to the Senate."

Told by two other advisers he has to "suck it up" for two years, the FBI says it heard Blagojevich complain he has to give this "motherf***er [the president-elect] his senator. F*** him. For nothing? F*** him."

Suck it up for two years? In other words, pretend nothing is happening, until people aren't looking, then you'll get your reward.

Not long for the job?

This man needs a fleet of bodyguards.
And what're the odds he'll still have a job after the inauguration?

Obama, ACORN/Project Vote And SEIU

Remember SEIU?

From the Service Employees International Union Local 100’s own website:

Notice the New Orleans address: 1024 Elysian Fields. Given for SEIU Local 100 Executive Board Members Rebecca Hart, Mildred Edmond, and Wade Rathke…

◼ It should be quite familiar...

...that is also the address that ACORN and their alternate front Project Vote Use on their Forms 990 filings with the IRS.


h/t: Sweetness & Light

Prev. Post: ◼ Obama Claims He Never Worked For Acorn BUT...
Project Vote is simply a front for ACORN.

...(By the way, “Citizens Services/Consulting” is Project Vote’s accountants. Coincidentally, they also keep the books for ACORN. Lest we forget, it was recently uncovered that the Obama campaign paid $832,598 to Citizens Services, Inc.)

And again, note that according to their Forms 990 ACORN and Project Vote (and Citizens Services) once again share the same address.

BREAKING: Feds Seize Blagojevich eBay Account

◼ Details at Iowahawk...

Senate seat for sale... Like NEW!

This is an interesting picture

Lookit those wheeler dealers.

NOW STOP IT!

Another horrendous pattern developing. Media pulling their stories and articles when the facts they previously reported are at odds with something Obama contends today.

YOU cannot do this!

YOU, the media, have a JOB to do. You are the record of our time and you cannot selectively edit out history, and thus hinder the rights fo the citizens to know the facts, the truth and the history.

From Little Green Footballs....
◼ Obama Did Discuss Senate Seat with Blagojevich - Update: KHQA Pulls Their Articles

Posted using ShareThis

Barack Obama has denied ever discussing his Senate seat replacement with Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich.

But that was apparently not true. ◼ A November 8th article at the KHQA website reports:

QUINCY, IL — Now that Barack Obama will be moving to the White House, his seat in the U.S. Senate representing Illinois will have to be filled.

Obama met with Governor Rod Blagojevich earlier this week to discuss it.

UPDATE at 12/10/08 11:17:50 am: ◼ Another KHQA article on the meeting, from November 5th: Who will fill Obama’s senate seat?

UPDATE at 12/10/08 11:48:08 am: And at the Illinois Government News Network, an announcement that the meeting took place and the Senate seat was discussed, with the headline: Governor Blagojevich Congratulates President-elect Obama and Discusses U.S. Senate Seat

UPDATE at 12/10/08 12:21:23 pm: KHQA has taken down both of their articles about the meeting, with no explanation.

It's true! Click on the links above - this is the message:
Content for Src="219212" of Type="application/html; src=cms-id" is unavailable.
Content for Src="217582" of Type="application/html; src=cms-id" is unavailable.

Maybe their servers are just overwhelmed by all the traffic from Little Green Footballs.

We can HOPE!

KQHA RETRACTING! their coverage...◼ KHQA Clarification WHY?! OTHER sources ALSO have people on record saying YES, they have discussed, yes they met...

Of course

Obama knew nothing about the Governor.

How many things - people close to him - Ayres, Wright, and on and on and on, does he 'not know anything about?'

How many more times are we going to hear these words?

"That's not the Tony Rezko I knew."
"That's not the William Ayres I knew."
"That's not the Rod Blagojevich I knew."

Either he lives in a dream world or he is lying.

◼ SEIU and Change To Win Named in Illinois Governor Scandal
◼ The Criminal Complaint
◼ link
◼ Roundup...
◼ link

NoQuarter:
◼ Breaking KEY FACTS in Blagojevich Case
◼ Axelrod on video: Obama talked to Governor about his replacement

◼ Michelle Obama Is The “Specifically Named Individual” On Page 64 of The Affidavit Submitted by FBI »
RBO: (A great compilation resource)

◼ The BlagoGate Reading List
◼ Speculation: Who’s Who in the Blago Complaint BlagoGate? (Update 1)
◼ BlagoGate: Did Obama talk with Blago after election?
◼ BlagoGate: Who’s Who?
◼ BlagoGate: Rahm said Obama helped Blago get elected

...from Rich Miller’s The Capitol Fax Blog in which Miller informs us that

“Congresscritter Rahm Emanuel says Obama helped get Blagojevich elected…”

“I’ve known [Obama] a long time. We used to sit around helping our governor get elected, help those strategy meetings, stuff like that.”...

◼ BlagoGate: Fitz DoJ Briefing December 9, 2008
◼ The Rezko/Obama reading list

◼ BlagoGate: Obama bus arrives

◼ Dictator Obama Puts His Enemies In Jail Even Before He Takes Office

◼ Obama: How He Learned to Win
◼ What Did They Know and When Did They Know It

◼ Yesterday: Jesse Jackson Jr.: People of Illinois deserve better
◼ Today: ABC: Candidate who allegedly offered Blago money for Senate seat is Jesse Jackson Jr◼ "[Obama] can get Blagojevich's wife on paid corporate boards in exchange for naming [a] pick to the Senate"
◼ FBI: Illinois Governor Sought To "Sell" Obama's Senate Seat Wanted President-Elect to "Put Something Together . . . Something Big"
The FBI affidavit said Blagojevich had been told by an adviser "the president-elect can get Rod Blagojevich's wife on paid corporate boards in exchange for naming the president-elect's pick to the Senate."

Told by two other advisers he has to "suck it up" for two years, the FBI says it heard Blagojevich complain he has to give this "motherf***er [the president-elect] his senator. F*** him. For nothing? F*** him."

You've come a long way, baby. Not.

This is nothing compared to what was done to Sarah Palin in the name of electing The Obama at all costs.

Slippery slopes

Junkfood science reports: ◼ This is how you do it
How do you create an obesity epidemic in a country with nearly the lowest percentage of “obese” people in the world?

You begin by changing the definition.

On Tuesday, Health Ministry officials in India released the country’s first Guidelines for the Prevention and Management of Obesity and Metabolic Syndrome. It begins by making significant departures from World Health Organization definitions for overweight and obesity. According to new cutoffs enacted by Indian health officials, anyone with a body mass index of 23 kg/m2 is now labeled as overweight. And a BMI of 25 and over is now defined as obese — considerably more stringent than the international cut-off of a BMI 30.

[As you may remember, overweight used to be defined as a BMI of 27 before the U.S. National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute changed the definition to 25 to match new international guidelines in 1998.]

As the Daily News & Analysis in Mumbai (Bombay) reported, men with waistlines of 35 inches or more and women with waistlines of 31.5 inches or more are now considered obese by the new norm. These, too, are well below the WHO cut-offs of 40.2 and 34.6 inches, respectively.

Not only have the definitions dramatically changed, but according to the new guidelines, any Indian with a BMI of 25 is now “a fit case for drug therapy to control obesity” and those at a BMI of 32.5 are to have bariatric surgery. ◼ Read The Rest

As The World Turns...

◼ Will Obama ‘Betray’ Environmentalists? "...at least on the surface, there has been a sea change from Obama the campaigner to Obama the soon-to-be president. Can the president-elect’s apparent betrayal of his core supporters go beyond foreign policy, economics, and defense? Yes, it can, right to its “religious” core: environmentalism....

...Obama will have an unexpected excuse if, as I expect (and hope), he abandons economy-crippling environmental aggressiveness in his first term. It is that the European Union has all but abandoned the radical climate change agenda. It is a development that has been virtually ignored by traditional media outlets in the U.S. But it’s happening with a vengeance, and you don’t have to look very hard to find it. Vehement objections are coming from Germany, Poland, Italy, and other EU countries.

What’s more, world opinion is turning against green extremism. The most significant finding at the linked article is that only 27% of those polled in 11 countries, including the U.S., “wanted their governments to participate in Kyoto-style international agreements to reduce emissions.”...

The worldwide economic slowdown is causing a long-overdue reevaluation of global warming (if such warming even exists):

As the global financial crisis takes hold, perhaps people are starting to wonder whether the so-called precautionary principle, which would have us accept enormous new taxes in the guise of an emissions trading scheme and curtail economic growth, is justified, based on what we actually know about climate.

The “precautionary principle,” in essence, says the following: “Okay, maybe we’re not really, really sure that global warming is occurring. And even if it is, we’re not really, really sure that human activity is causing it. But shouldn’t we err on the safe side, thereby formulating and enforcing strict emissions limits, just in case?” Such an outlook, taken to the extreme, would close the door on any and all future human progress. World opinion, which Obama and leftists love to claim should hold so much sway, isn’t answering “No.” It’s screaming “Heck no!" ◼ pajamasmedia.com

Make that "HELL NO!"

Holiday "skin" for the blog...

temporary, but fun... check 'em out at here. (They're not all holiday, and they're installed as a gadget, not uploaded as a template.)

This one's cool, too.
Found the link here...http://pocket-templates.blogspot.com/
(reminder: Always back up your template before messing with it in any way shape or form.)

A Fascinating Piece

◼ SWAMPOODLE REPORT: BAIT & SWITCH
...Civil rights and black power - as independent movements - faded in inverse proportion to the rise of black politicians, and with this shift symbols replaced substance. The power of the many became the power of the one.

This wasn't the case of earlier political machines, but these were created upon building an organization of voters rather than of contributors. Once we dumped the old machines in favor of television and dollar driven successors, ordinary people became important only at election time, and they were easily swayed by the exploding tools of propaganda. Thus we found Obama running as a "community organizer" when in fact the only community he was organizing was a temporary one for himself. ...

...Obama's liberal coalition has served its purpose - to get him elected - and will be replaced by those who will also serve their purpose - to keep him there. That's the way politics is these days. The tone and the target of the 2012 election will be strikingly different as Obama goes after his new constituency. If you don't like it, next time find out what your candidate means when he talks of "change."

Global Labor and Politics: The Real Bill Ayers?

Global Labor and Politics: The Real Bill Ayers?

Portending

The next time the three will be as close and visible as this week will be Nov. 18, 2052

This image doesn't do it justice and I was unable to get a shot of it. It's very cosmic. Kind of in a Chronicles of Riddick kind of way.

In earlier times it would be an omen, a sign of portending doom. Or maybe of something good. With all the hopenchangey bots, it must be a sign of good changes to come.

Cash COW!

Cute as a baby seal, Sure to stir emotion, and generate a frenzy of check writing.

I must be getting cynical in my old age. I want to know where this story originated - What 'group" stands to gain from this image? How many PR firms, Graphics departments and Think Tanks did it take to come up with this one? Oh, just blame it on Global warming.

So, if the recent reports that it's COOLING after all that we have to worry about, how does that affect this campaign? Answer: facts don't matter.

Look at the DATE of this report...
☛ Is this possum the first furry victim of climate change? 3/12/2008

Then look at the recent viral spread of reports -
☛ Dec 2, Dec 3, 2008, spreading like wildfire...
h/t: ☛ Althouse

MSNBC is the new FOX

h/t: hotair.com

Change That Happened And Nobody Noticed

Yesterday Obama said this, as if it were something new:
“We’re going to have to bring the full force of our power, not only military but also diplomatic, economic, and political, to deal with those threats not only to keep America safe but also to ensure that peace and prosperity will exist around the world,” he said....
from ◼ Attack Machine via ◼ netrightnation.com

The Hugo Chavez Show

Geez! ◼ This is UNREAL. the Hugo Chavez Show... 8 installments on www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/hugochavez/
...Every Sunday President Chávez talks to the people in his TV show - which lasts for hours. Chávez basically improvises as he goes along....

h/t: James

◼ From Daniel in Venzuela on Nov. 30 -
Another reason for Chavez to close Globovision
Tonight, 7 PM, on Globovision, the Spanish version of the FRONTLINE documentary "The Chavez show". DO NOT MISS IT!!! Then again Chavez might stick a cadena....
◼ Frontline on Chavez: The Hugo Chavez show
...The cooperative chapter is brilliant. They compare the textile one that is shown to "political tourists" while they are sewing bunches of red clothing! And after they show a real cooperative, of the kind not shown to visitors, left on its own, without any business training, left to a slow death. And the end of that chapter they go on to housing construction cooperatives; we see the guy that is still waiting to get paid while the "la Suiza" subsidized development lays idle, stopped on its track once Chavez monitored the inauguration of the first building and moved on to some new interest. Fabulous! With savaged tractor bonus!

The chapter on freedom of expression is excellent at illustrating how freedom of expression is still exerted at least by some within the opposition (the self censorship issue is not addressed) but showing how such freedom of expression does not exist within chavismo ranks. We get two examples of awful scolding of chavista supporters, an activist humiliated in an Alo Presidente and Eleazar Diaz Rangel who shows to us that he accepts his scolding as the abject sycophant he has become. It is amazing that Diaz Rangel would have thought that he would have fooled Frontline with such lame excuses!!! But what is better is that Teodoro Petkoff explains clearly how the terrorizing of his supporters is an effective weapon for Chavez to control them. Fascism anyone?

◼ Washington Post Hugo Chávez, Stealing His Own Show

◼ Googled links - take your pick.